Bobbin Or Tatting, She Loves Lace

-- BELLEVUE

Her craft is time-consuming, painstaking and complicated.

And what it all comes down to is a series of knots.

But Helene Hedwall of Bellevue doesn't mind. She's making - that's right, making - lace.

Depending on the width, pattern complexity and type of lacemaking, Hedwall's favorite hobby can take hours to produce just a few inches.

But the finely detailed results add flavor to the trimmings on the sleeves of her dress and her living room. Doilies lay on the coffee table.

Many of Hedwall's works will be on display at the 18th annual Heritage Festival at Marymoor Park in Redmond tomorrow and Sunday. No stranger to the festival, Hedwall has demonstrated her craft there for 16 years, she says.

Because of the amount of time she puts into making one piece, Hedwall's works will not be for sale. This hobby is strictly for her enjoyment, she says.

"I just don't make enough of it to sell," she says.

Hedwall loves all types of needlework, but lacemaking is her favorite. She has been making lace for 25 years, and started by learning how to tat from a neighbor.

Bobbin lacemaking came seven years later through a woman who was scheduled to teach the craft at a Bellevue Parks and Recreation department class.

But, says Hedwall, "I was the only one who signed up for the class, so it was canceled. I wanted to try it because it was a new form of needlework."

So she sought out the instructor on her own and took private lessons.

Bobbin lace requires skill and patience, she says.

The setup requires a bobbin pillow, a pattern, thread for lacemaking, sewing pins and bobbins.

A bobbin looks like a thicker version of the round wooden pin your grandmother used to stick in her bun. Ranging from 3 to 6 inches in length, and used to wrap and hold the thread down on the pillow, each bobbin has three beads strung on a wire through one end.

The beads add weight to the bobbin to help hold it in place on the pillow, says Hedwall. "And they make it look pretty."

Spread in the shape of a crescent, 72 bobbins lie on a lush green velveteen round bobbin pillow. The pillows, like the bobbins, range in size and look like pin cushions with a rectangular box cut out of the middle. Inside the box sits a roller onto which a pattern is pinned.

This particular pillow, holding a 2-inch-wide piece of delicately crafted white lace, is fairly large, about 18 inches in diameter.

Tatting, the other and easier form of lacemaking, says Hedwall, is done by making little knots with a shuttle and thread. Many handmade doilies are made by tatting, she said.

"You can tell the difference between the two styles by looking at them closely," she said. "Bobbin lace has a distinct woven quality in it and tatting has little picots (loops), rings and chains."

The word "tatting," she said, was derived from the French word frivolite. "So tatting is like a frivolous thing to do," she says.

However frivolous it may be, Hedwall says, "So often people will say to me how their mothers had tried to teach them how to make lace and they weren't interested and now they regret it."